The present invention relates to the field of communications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for determining whether an electronic mail communication sent to an intended recipient has been sent by a sending party that is authorized to communicate with the intended recipient, and if not, to provide the sending party with an option of paying a fee in order for the communication to provided to the intended recipient.
Currently, when a subscriber of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) wants to check his or her electronic mail, the subscriber connects to the subscriber""s ISP and any new mail is downloaded to the subscriber""s computer, or data terminal equipment (DTE), via the subscriber""s data communication equipment (DCE), e.g., a modem, which is coupled to the DTE. The subscriber may have to dial in to the ISP in order for these events to occur or the subscriber may be connected to a server that periodically connects with the ISP or that has a xe2x80x9cnailed upxe2x80x9d connection to the ISP to enable email for the subscriber to be downloaded to the server. In each of these cases, email intended for the subscriber is ultimately downloaded from the ISP and displayed on a monitor comprised by the subscriber""s DTE.
Oftentimes, people solicit business over the Internet by sending out email messages, which may be, for example, advertisements, to large numbers of people, which is commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cspamxe2x80x9d. The recipients of these messages often are not interested in receiving these messages. Sometimes these messages contain a large quantity of data and may take quite a bit of time to download. Furthermore, some of these messages contain data such as computer viruses that can adversely affect the subscriber""s computer.
Although techniques are known that allow ISP subscribers to screen unwanted email communications, none offers the ability to provide the sender with the option of paying a fee in return for being allowed to communicate with the intended recipient. By providing the sender with the option of paying a fee in return for allowing them to communicate with the intended recipient via email, the common practice of broadcasting spam to recipients with whom the sender has no prior relationship could be hindered or eliminated. However, simply preventing email from being sent to the recipient may cause the recipient to not receive email that the recipient might otherwise have desired to receive. By providing the sender with the option of paying a fee to have the email sent through to the subscriber might allow the sender to receive the email and, in return, generate revenue, which could be allocated to the recipient and/or to the recipient""s ISP.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus that allow unwelcome or unsolicited email messages to be screened out so that they are not downloaded to the subscriber, or to allow the messages to be provided to the subscriber in return for paying a fee.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining whether a party sending an email communication is on a list of parties authorized by the intended receiving party. If the sending party is not on the list of authorized parties, the recipient is provided with the option of paying, or agreeing to pay, a fee in return for the message being provided to the intended receiving party.
Preferably, the present invention is implemented with Internet communications. However, the present invention can be used in private networks as well, such as local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). When used with LANs and WANs, the present invention could be implemented to allow users or system administrators to decide which parties"" or entities"" email communications will be received by the intended recipient. In this case, a fee may or may not be charged to the sending party.
All or a portion of any fee charged may be paid to the intended receiving party. A portion of the fee may be applied, for example, to the intended receiving party""s ISP and/or to the intended recipient. The present invention is not limited with respect to the manner in which the fee is collected and/or used after the sending party has been charged.
The present invention is also not limited with respect to the location at which the method and/or apparatus are located in the communications network. Preferably, the present invention is implemented at the intended receiving party""s ISP. In accordance with the well known Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), the destination address of the intended receiving party and the source address the sending party are contained in the IP message, commonly referred to as a datagram.
In accordance with the present invention, when a datagram is received at the ISP, the ISP server analyzes the destination address and the source address to determine whether the source address is on a list of authorized source addresses associated with the destination address. If so, the message is saved in a location in the ISP database associated with the destination address so that it is available to be downloaded by the intended recipient. If not, the sending party corresponding to the source address is provided with the option of being charged a fee in return for the message being provided to the recipient.
Preferably, the service provided by the present invention is optional and can be enabled or disabled at the receiving party""s ISP depending on whether the receiving party has subscribed to the service.
The present invention is capable of being implemented with any communications protocol that transmits an indication of the source of the message to the intended recipient, including communications protocols that do and do not comply with the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model. Preferably, the communications protocol that is used with the present invention is TCP/IP. Other types of public and private communications protocols can also be used with the present invention, including proprietary protocols, as will be understood by those skilled in the art.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, drawings and claims.